Fence-post



No. 623,205. Patented Apr l8, I899.

. H.. J. DONAHOE.

FENCE POST.

(Appliqstion fllad 1m. 1a, 1597. (No lodal.)

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n4: mums PETERS no. vno'mumo, WASHINGTON, o. c.

ETE STATES PATENT FFICE.

IIEDLEY J. DONAHOE, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

FENCE-POST.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 623,205, dated April 18, 1899. Application filed March 18, 1897. Serial No. 628,189. (No modell) To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that LHEDLEY JOHN DONAHOE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful SheetSteel Triangular-Shaped lVire-Fence Post; and I do declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

My invention relates to metallic fence-posts angular in cross-section; and it has for its primary object to provide aconstruction of post that may be readily driven into the ground without danger of buckling or bending.

Other objects of my invention of minorimportance will be hereinafter described with reference to the accompanying drawings and more particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the said drawings, Figure 1 is a front view of my improved post. Fig. 2 is an enlarged transverse sectional view thereof, showing a section of wire heldin position thereon.

In carrying out my invention I employ a strip A of sheet metal, preferably sheet-steel, which may be comparatively thin and which is bent down its center from top to bottom to form a comparatively sharp angle throughout the height of the front side of the post, thus making two sides of a triangle. The rear edges of the strip are then turned toward each other, as clearly shown in Fig. 2, so as to form another angle H on eachside, thus making a structure having three angles or bends in cross-section, the purpose of the rear angles H being to stiffen the sides of the post and enable it being driven into the ground by blows applied at the upper end, any suitable cap or shield for protecting the upper end from being mutilated by the driving instrument being employed.

In order to better facilitate the driving operation, the lower end L of the post is more or less tapered from the ground-line K downwardly, and its extreme lower end is provided with a beveled point G, which is beveled downwardly from the rear side of the post toward the angular front, so that when the post encounters a stone or other obstruction the beveled form of its'end will force such stone to one side and enable the post to continue downwardly, it being understood that unless the point of the bevel should happen to strike the stone directly in its center orin such a manner that the stone would have equal support on all sides the driving operation would produce a tendency to make the stone give way on its smaller or less supported side, and thereby place itself in such a relation to the beveled point as to enable the latter to crowd it out of the way. Stones of an area smaller than the interior of the post would of course be crowded to a position within the bounds of the posts area and then remain on the interior while the post descends, thus adding to the rigidity of the post.

The upright angle on the front side of the postis provided throughout above the groundline at suitable intervals with open notches or slots D, which extend backwardly a greater distance than the thickness of the metal of the post and also a greater distance than the thickness of the fence-wire E, so that the latter may be inserted in the notch sidewise and when inserted there will be room between the front side of the wire and the rear side of the post for the insertion of a binding-key J without the necessity of kinking or bending the wire toward the post. The advantage of this open notch thus formed is that a barbed wire which could not be strung through an eyelet may be inserted sidewise, and after it is inserted and the key J put in place it may be pulled endwise to give it sufficient tension,

and finally locked in place when the tension is attained by simply forcing the key downwardly, whereas if it were necessary to kink the wire before the key could be inserted the wire could not afterward be pulled longitudinally for giving it the required tension and it would be difficult to kink the wire while under tension for inserting the key after the tension had been attained. Moreover, it is desirable that the key be inserted before the wire is kinked, for the reason that the wire may be stretched across and secured to a great number of posts before it is pulled taut.

The angular bends II, it will'be seen, are turned toward each other, but do not touch. The advantage of this is twofold: First, I am enabled to produce a post of the same strength as if the edges were brought together, and,

secondly, by having the edges Widely sepa-' rated I am enabled to nest the posts during shipment and interlock the edges in such a way that a large number of them will cling 2. A metallic fence-post having the notched angular front edge and the rear inwardlyturned angle-pieces H projecting toward but not touching each other so as to strengthen the post while in use and to form interlocking members for clustering the posts during ship ment, substantially as set forth.

' HEDLEY J DONAI-IOE.

Witnesses:

O. E. BURNAP, MORTON J. DATE; 

